Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh
just when I was in sort of a pain with a pile of bags in my makeshift studio, the idea came in.... in fact, you have to be in trouble in order to come up with a solution..... photographers are sort of gear heads..... you have to have "the gear" to get a photo.... and sometimes, you have to have the "gears" to get the photo.... in my case, the word "gears" has taken a new meaning since I've started using artificial lights.... now, its not the camera and lenses that take up the most amount of space.... its rather the accessories helping with lighting that outweigh cameras and lenses at least 4-to-1..... organising all these bulk has become a real headache since then....
I first got the idea from a Chase Jarvis video.... this pro knows how to organise things... his safe looks like a weapons bay in a sci-fi flick!!.... though I'm far from Chase, he surely is one of my icons when it comes to organising photo gear....
thanks to Chase, I've finally ordered my custom-made "bag-rack"!!..... yea, its my ultimate photo-organiser.... now I've got almost all my photo-gear stowed in a 3'x2' floor space.... it took up 6'+ space vertically and did the job..... now I have most of my room empty..... it freed my mind, so that new ideas can flow!! :)
here we go.... lets have a count!!
01: the massive soft roller bag that holds my stands and tripods, booms and DIY diffusers.... I only took it once out of home, to Rajshahi.... it did the job in some ways... the best thing about it is that it can hold my 3'-long light-stands....
02: just out of view, its the Westcott Apollo 28" softbox.... its too long to fit in any of the bags!!
03: Elinchrom Ranger kit case.... useless actually.... didn't want that.... it just came with the offer.... and I didn't have an option with the offer.... it now holds a spare battery for the Ranger system, a Simpex Prolite monolight and some heavy-duty extension cable for the monolight...
04: one of the heavy light-stands I got from Simpex
05: my favourite old shoulder bag.... originally a laptop bag... but I modified it to become a camera bag.... I used; sorry, abused it for several years.... it still goes on.... currently it holds cables and chargers..... its the cheapest equivalent of a Think Tank Urban Disguise series of camera bags....
06: a laptop bag that I bought with my Lenovo netbook.... one of the worst investments I've made.... no longer have a use for it...
07: Pelican 1550 case.... this tank now holds most of my lights, including the Elinchrom Freelight-A head that came with the Ranger unit.... my new favourite location lighting kit....
08: this is the Pierre Cardin luggage bag..... great thing.... when I'm not needing it to carry luggage, it holds photography stuff.... currently storing most of my grip equipment, including two hotshoe softboxes, three small light-stands, a monopod and various other stuff, mostly made out of metal....
09: Pierre Cardin backpack..... currently holds the monster, the Elinchrom Ranger RX Speed AS battery pack.... this 8kg beast is accompanied by a couple of folded softboxes from Simpex.... yea, they do fit the Elinchrom mount!!
10: my trusty old backpack that I used for most of my photo-outings.... its been through a lot.... and pretty much battered now.... carrying a heavy load is no longer the safest option for it..... but I've found a use for it.... it now stores all the fabrics..... its a great kit if I need to setup a studio on location.....
11: Nikon shoulder camera bag..... I use this for short outings, when I know exactly what kind of gear I would be needing most.... mostly use this for street photography....
12: big duffel bag.... its my grip kit.... currently holds folded DIY diffusion panels and umbrellas, which are too long for the Pierre Cardin bag... it also has two other bags inside it with the redundant Pelican foam inserts in them!!
13: my oldest shoulder camera bag.... currently holds my two film camera bodies.... don't use it outside home....
14: Tiroll backpack.... its another bag that I've improvised to carry photography equipment.... its a good bag.... also can carry my netbook.... but once it gets really heavy, the shoulder strap doesn't really back it up!!
15: Lowepro Vertex 100 bag.... my new favourite camera backpack.... I can also carry my netbook in it.... holds most camera and lenses that I have....
16: Lowepro Rezo 190 shoulder bag.... just got it several days back.... it would allow me to add some strobist stuff in addition to an extra tele lens.... this is something that I can't do with the small shoulder bag (11)....
the only thing not here is my most favourite bag of all.... a cheap and small JiaJun shoulder bag that I use to carry my netbook.... it also holds my Panasonic Lumix LX-5 p&s cam....
more to come later....
